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devil's gut, love-vine

cassytha

Stems

twining, pale green to yellow-green to orange, filiform, glabrous or pubescent.

Leaves

alternate, ca. 1 mm.

reduced to minute scales, spirally arranged, glabrous or pubescent.

Inflorescences

spikes, rarely reduced to single flower.

spikes [panicles or racemes], rarely reduced to single flower.

Flowers

bisexual, subtended by ciliate bract and bracteoles;

outer 3 tepals 0.1-1 mm, similar to bracteoles, inner 3 tepals 1-1.8 mm, apex incurved;

pistil 1.2 mm, glabrous.

bisexual, sessile or shortly pedicellate, subtended by bract and 2 bracteoles;

tepals persistent at apex of accrescent floral tube that surrounds fruit, greenish white or whitish, outermost row similar to bracts, innermost row larger;

stamens 9 (or 6), anthers 2-locular, anthers of outer 6 stamens introrse, of inner 3 extrorse;

staminodes 3 (or 6);

ovary globose.

Drupe

to 7 mm diam. 2n = 48.

black, globose, enclosed in floral tube, remnants of perianth apical.

Vines

, parasitic, with threadlike stems.

Cassytha filiformis

Cassytha

Phenology Flowering spring–summer (May–Jul).
Habitat Coastal vegetation
Elevation 0-20 m (0-100 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
North America; Tropical and subtropical regions; mostly Australia; a few in Africa
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Cassytha filiformis is a very distinctive plant that can be confused only with Cuscuta, a vining parasite of the Cuscutaceae.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species ca. 17 (1 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3. Author: Henk van der Werff.
Parent taxa Lauraceae > Cassytha Lauraceae
Subordinate taxa
C. filiformis
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 35. (1753) Osbeck: in C. Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 35. 175: Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 22. 1754 (as "Cassyta")
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